Originally Posted by
dougmc
In a perfect world, perhaps. In the real world, the government enjoys a large degree of immunity to citizen lawsuits and generally takes advantage of that ("shouldn't have parked there, it's your fault"), and the tow company would say "it must have been like that before we towed it" and force you to sue them, where it turns into a "he said, she said" situation. And that assumes that the government immunity (if it applies -- it doesn't always) doesn't also protect them when acting as an agent for the government.
I am sure that is true in texas, which seems to be the only place you know anything about. But in other states, some governments have a reasonable process for settling claims. Hawaii even pays for damage caused by pot holes. The fastest way for a tow company to end a government contract for towing is to have a lot of unpaid claims rolling past the tow company to the government.
But texas governments probably like getting lots of damage claims because of bad tow companies.